5 Invasive Pests Lurking in Your Firewood

Tree-killing bugs and pathogens could be hitching a ride inside your firewood. In a recent study, scientists bought firewood from convenience shops and grocery stores and watched as dozens of species emerged from nearly half of the bundles—some appearing as late as 18 months after the date of purchase. Much of the wood had traveled across state lines, meaning retail firewood could be spreading these pests. Buy local, burn local, and maybe you'll avoid these pests.

Asian Long-Horned Beetle

Asian Long-Horned Beetle

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this black and white beetle "has the potential to cause more damage than Dutch elm disease, chestnut blight, and gypsy moths combined, destroying millions of acres of America's treasured hardwoods, including national forests and backyard trees." Native to China and the Korea peninsula, the bug was first discovered in the U.S. in New York in 1996. It has since been detected in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Ohio, where it has cultivated a taste for maple trees and other hardwoods such as elm, birch, and willow. Transportation of untreated wood is the main way this beetle spreads, and no effective control measures exist.

Thousand Cankers Disease

Thousand Cankers Disease

When the walnut twig beetle expanded out of its native range in the Southwest and into Utah and Colorado, it brought along a deadly fungus. In black walnut trees, Geosmithia morbida causes an ugly infection characterized by dozens of small lesions that cluster together into larger cankers, killing the tree's vital cambium tissue, a layers of cells under the bark that helps the tree grow fatter, and eventually the tree itself. Since the 1990s, the fungus has become widespread throughout the American West and is now making its way toward the East Coast's extensive native walnut populations. Thousand Cankers Disease was detected in Tennessee in 2010 then in Virginia and Pennsylvania in 2011. The transportation of firewood that harbors the walnut twig beetle is at least partially to blame for the fungus' rapid spread.